Bill and Brenna were in Shandong Provence, China, for a couple weeks and came home just before the earthquake struck Sichuan. When we were there, the mood of the country was celebratory in anticipation of the Olympics this summer. “Beijing 2008″ and “Go China!” were the cries everywhere we went. Being cyclists, we fit right in with the masses and bought some bikes for $11 each and set off riding all over Qingdao on our single speed cruisers.

We were visiting a former TAI Cycling member, Turner Gutmann, who’s teaching at a university with his wife, Sara. Turner was invited to participate in a cycling tour from Qingdao to Beijing ahead of the Olympics to promote cycling, awareness of cycling and the main sponsor — a milk company. The ride organizers put on a Bike Talent Show Series over a few weekends in various locations and the winners of the talent show were put into a lottery to win a spot on the 7-day bike tour, along with a new road bike.